(Examiner.com) No one really knows where Tarot cards came from, but many historians believe they originated in the Middle East and were first used in by Westerners in medieval Europe as ordinary playing cards. The oldest surviving Tarot card decks are all fragments that belonged to the Visconti family in 15th century Italy. A reproduction of that first Visconti-Scforza deck (with some of the missing elements filled in with speculative designs) can still be purchased today. These early cards were almost certainly used for card games and gambling. For the most part, such cards were found only in the homes of the rich. -- Read more